SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 1D
Page 2D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017
East Indians circa 1915
How it started
The Bill abolishing slavery was passed in the
British Parliament, then headed by Prime
Minister Earl Grey, on July 31, 1833 to come into
effect in 1834. However, it was not until August
1, 1838 that final Emancipation came. In the
interval, as a consequence of lobbying by West
Indian planters there had been a period of
apprenticeship, during which the former
enslaved would work for wages on the planta-
tions in the British Caribbean colonies. But
apprenticeship was fraught with many difficul-
ties and as the end of slavery was now clearly in
sight, the planters began to seek low-wage labour
elsewhere. Their eyes fell first on the Portuguese
island of Madeira, but since it was clear that it
would not supply labour in the quantity they
wanted over the long term, they turned their
sights to Asia, and to the British colony of India
in particular.
One of the early overtures to bringing Indians
to British Guiana came from John Gladstone,
who wrote a letter to Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co
Ltd (GACL) dated January 4, 1836 from Liver-
pool. Gladstone had plantations in British Guiana
and Jamaica and was concerned over the loss of
labour he expected to face. He requested 100
labourers from Calcutta and informed the compa-
ny that he would be disposed to sending a ship to
ferry them to Demerara.
According to a copy of the letter, published by
Gulcharan Mohabir on the website
http://www.sulekha.com, Mr Gladstone offered
some inducements: Our plantation labour in the
field is very light; much of it, particularly in
Demerara, is done by task-work, which for the
day is usually completed by two oclock in the
afternoon, giving to the people all the rest of the
day to themselves. They are furnished with com-
fortable dwellings and abundance of food; plan-
tains, the produce of the colony, being the most
common, and preferred generally by them; but
they have also occasionally rice, Indian corn-
meal, ships biscuits, and a regular supply of salt
cod-fish, as well as the power of fishing for them-
selves in the trenches. They have likewise an
annual allowance of clothing sufficient and suitable
for the climate; there are schools on each estate for
the education of the children, and the instruction of
their parents in the knowledge of religious duties.
Their houses are comfortable, and it may be fairly
said they pass their time agreeably and happily.
Marriages are encouraged, and when improper con-
duct on the part of the people takes place, there are
public stipendiary magistrates, who take cognisance
of such, and judge between them and their employ-
ers. They have regular medical attendance whenev-
er they are indisposed, at the expense of their
employers.
He added: It would be desirable that a portion of
them, at least one-half, should be married, and their
wives disposed to work in the field as well as they
themselves. We should require to bind them for a
period not less than five years or more than seven
years. They would be provided with comfortable
dwellings, food, and medical assistance; they would
also, if required, be provided with clothing, or wages
to provide themselves, which, for the able-bodied,
would not exceed four dollars per month, and in that
proportion for females and their children as they
grow up; a free passage would be given to them to
Demerara, where they would be divided, and 20 to
30 placed on one plantation.
But he need not have worried as the reply from
Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co made clear. This com-
pany had already been involved in sending Indians
to work on the sugar plantations in Mauritius. The
response from Calcutta dated June 6, 1836 said:
We are not aware that any greater difficulty would
present itself in sending men to the West Indies, the
natives being perfectly ignorant of the place they
agree to go to, or the length of the voyage they are
undertaking. The tribe that is found to suit best in
the Mauritius is from the hills to the north of
Calcutta, and the men of which are all well-limbed
and active, without prejudices of any kind, and hard-
ly any ideas beyond those of supplying the wants of
nature, arising it would appear, however, more from
want of opportunity than from any natural
Indian Girl circa 1892 Turn to page 4D

Indian indenture: Some reasons for
immigrants repatriating and settling
By Dr David Chanderbali
(First printed in Stabroek News,
May 5, 2006)
The Indian immigrants in British Guiana
who had completed their first contract and had
also fulfilled the five-year industrial resi-
dence requirement were entitled by law to free
repatriation to India. The advantage of the free
return passage was not taken by a majority of
immigrants in the colonies more distant from
their homeland. Between 1842 and 1870, for
instance, an average of 76 per cent of the immi-
grants in Mauritius, British Guiana, Trinidad,
and Jamaica decided to settle in their respective
colony. By comparison, for the same years, of
those who had sought employment in Ceylon,
Burma, and Malaya, 80 per cent decided, for
reasons undocumented, to return home at their
own expense.
Why the average 24 per cent in the more dis-
tant colonies decided to repatriate is also not
easy to establish. The immigrants were not
questioned before their departure from the
colonies; and the Protector of Emigrants in
India, although required by law to do so, sel-
dom interviewed repatriating labourers.
Even when they did, it was cursory and
unsystematic. Nevertheless, regarding the
Indian indentured immigrants in British
Guiana the following reasons, either singly or
multiple, would explain why a minority decid-
ed to return to India and the rest opted to settle
in the colony.
For many immigrants, their expectations
that were based on the recruiters promises had
been too high, and they would have been disap-
pointed when reality confronted them. For
some immigrants, the shortage of marriageable
Indian women, coupled with their apparent
aversion to exogamous marriages, would have
been a source of great discontent. That more
men retro-migrated did not alleviate the sexual
imbalance since more males than females con-
tinued to arrive in the colony. Other immi-
grants would have been overcome by the nos-
talgia of Mother India and the memory of a
wife or an old parent whose funeral pyre his
religion required him to light. Those immi-
grants who had arrived weak and sickly and
were able to strengthen themselves by better
food and medical care could not have been
overly daunted by the perils and uncertainty of
the long voyage home. The belief in the loss of
caste was probably inconsequential to many
who repatriated.
With the money saved, they could establish
themselves in another community and keep
their transmarine experience a secret, or, as
many had actually done, give caste-dinners at
which they were re-initiated, often in a higher
caste. A number of immigrants in the colony
would have been dissatisfied as a result of the
treatment received from medical officers.
It was common practice for medical men to
discharge immigrants from hospital before they
were completely cured, and to this may be
attributed a large percentage of the so-called
idleness charges that were brought before mag-
istrates. By the strict letter of the law, an inden-
tured immigrant was bound to do his daily task
of work if he was not in hospital or in gaol, and
although the magistrate had a discriminatory
power of declining to convict, if he believed
the accused was physically unable to work, it
would have been difficult for him, on account
of the alleged malingering propensity of the
SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 3D
East Indians, to decide, other than in extreme
cases, against the expressed opinion of the
doctor.
The immigrants perception of unfair deal-
ing by the courts would have also influenced
the decision to repatriate.
Of the majority of immigrants who were
weekly committed to gaol for breaches of con-
tract, a very considerable proportion was con-
victed of neglect to do what they were physi-
cally incapable of doing.
Even pregnant women were liable to pun-
ishment for neglecting to perform the ordinary
task of work despite that they pleaded their
delicate condition in this respect, and were evi-
dently, by their appearance, near their confine-
ment.
A sense of injustice of such convictions
seemed a very potent cause for the prevailing
resentment amongst the immigrants.
Another cause for resentment was the fact
that invidiously distinct positions in court were
assigned to managers of estates. Some of them
being Justices of the Peace were allowed to
remain on the bench even during the trial of
their own cases. It very often happened that a
manager would in open court whisper to the
presiding magistrate upon the subject of the
case being tried and in which he was a com-
plainant. Such behaviour would give the immi-
grants the impression of partiality even to a
conscientious magistrate.
Hindu priest 19th century
Finally, the East Indians experienced a
social problem which would have persuaded a
number of them to return to India. During the
early days of immigration few of them had
received even a modicum of education in
British Guiana. They were, however, able to
retain their religion, their social habits, and to
some extent, their language.
With their mixture of caste and religions and
their different languages and dialects, they
tended to become narrow in outlook and less
prone to become cosmopolitan, Moreover,
their contractual terms created a mentality and
an atmosphere amongst them of a mere tempo-
rary stay in the colony. Consequently, the pro-
vision that the colonial government made for
public education during the period of indenture
tended largely to pass the Indians by.
Decision to settle
The Indian immigrants who chose to settle
in British Guiana would have been motivated
by one or a combination of the following fac-
tors.
After ten years residence among jahaji
bhais (i.e. brothers of the boat, as indentured
shipmates affectionately addressed one anoth-
er) and sometimes among kith and kin, and
new alliances, the nostalgia that would have
afflicted the immigrants would have dissipat-
ed. In the early years of indenture, they would
have experienced the trauma of a contraction
in the field of social participation.
But with every new wave of immigrants
landed on the estates, that field would have
expanded to encompass a growing social circle
comprising little Indias. All of this would have
eased the pressure of living in a foreign coun-
try.
At the end of the tenth year also, many
labourers had acquired a family and built their
own home and owned livestock and other
property.
Those who had renounced their right to
Muslim Missionary Turn to page 10D
Page 4D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017

How it
started From page 2D
deficiency, of which there is no indication
in their countenance, which is often one of
intelligence. They are also very docile and
easily managed, and appear to have no
local ties, nor any objection to leave their
country
The best period for procuring and ship-
ping the men is in our cold season,
between the months of November and
April, and the instruction to procure the
men should precede the ship about two
months, to give time to collect them; we
should of course not be able to find a
cargo for the ship, but some morghy rice
might be sent, which with a little care
would keep for three years
The Hill tribes, known by the name of
Dhangurs [Dhangars], are looked down
upon by the more cunning natives of the
plains, and they are always spoken of as
more akin to the monkey than the man.
They have no religion, no education, and,
in their present state, no wants beyond
eating, drinking, and sleeping; and to
procure which they are willing to labour.
In sending men to such a distance, it
would of course be necessary to be more
particular in selecting them, and some lit-
tle expense would be incurred, as also
some trouble; but to aid any object of
interest to you, we should willingly give
our best exertions in any manner likely to
be of service.
Gladstone was an absentee planter
whose plantation would have been man-
aged by an attorney, and who may, or may
not have known the real conditions that
existed there. Whatever the case, the real-
ity for the Indians who eventually arrived
here was in no way related to Gladstones
fantasy.
The first Indians arrived in British
Guiana on board the Whitby and the
Hesperus 396 men, women and children
two years later on May 5, 1838. They
included Hill Coolies from the Chota
Nagpur plateau about 300 miles from
Calcutta. Even before this, Indians had
been indentured to work in other colonies,
including the French territory of Runion
in the Western Indian Ocean, and eventu-
ally they could be found in a range of
British tropical colonies, as well as in the
Vegetable sellers in Georgetown circa 1900
Dutch colony of Suriname. Castle in 1872. The causes of these strikes were the wide- tion of Indians who were disparagingly referred to as
For the next 79 yearsa lifetimeexcept for two spread dissatisfaction with long hours of work, reduced coolies. This motion failed, but interest had been
stoppages between 1839 and 1851, about 239,000 Indians pay and deductions from pay along with general ill-treat- drummed up and two years later, indentureship was abol-
were brought to British Guiana, initially on five-year con- ment and abuse. Many Indians were arrested and incar- ished in Mauritius.
tracts, which included transport back to India at the end cerated and some lost their lives. Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst,
of their period of indentureship. However, only a minori- According to Associate Professor Emeritus York who served as Viceroy and Governor General to India
ty either chose to return or were actually able to go back. College, CUNY, Basdeo Mangru, it was a campaign in from 1910-1916, based on reports he received, con-
The stoppages came about following complaints about India that set the stage for the abolition of Indian inden- demned the high death rate, the appalling incidence of
how badly the Indians were being treated and the British ture. It began, he wrote in a letter to this newspaper, with suicides, mounting planter prosecution and the inde-
government launched enquiries and then appointed immi- a resolution by Indian nationalist, Gopal Krishna Gokhale scribable sexual immorality among Indian women
gration officials, who were to ensure that the regulations that was introduced in the Viceroys Imperial Legislative which produced a high level of Indian wife murders. He
were adhered to. Council in 1910 to terminate emigration to Natal. This called for the abolition of indenture to remove a social
Nevertheless, the exploitation continued and inevitably was passed the next year and Mr Gokhale then sought stigma which was bitterly resented by Indian educated
the Indians in due course were involved in disturbances another resolution for the prohibition of recruitment of opinion, Prof Mangru said. Lord Hardinges indictment
or went on strike on various plantations. Historians have Indian labour for colonial and inland employment. He coupled with an intensive anti-indenture campaign and
documented disturbances and strikes at Plantation listed several objections to indenture: an unfair contract the outbreak of World War I which required Indian ships
Leonora, West Coast Demerara in July 1869; at Planta- which omitted the penal sanctions, high mortality, and labour led to the suspension of indenture on March
tions Hague, Zeelugt, Vergenoegen, Uitvlugt, Success absence of safeguards, mounting number of court prose- 20, 1917. The system was officially abolished three years
and Non Pareil in 1870, and at Plantation Devonshire cutions, appalling number of suicides, the degrading posi- later.

Daughter of indentured
immigrants recalls the old days
By Shabna Rahman
Pongavanum Munsammy fondly called
Aunty Chalma, had picked kamranga
(carambola or starfruit) and breadfruit
from her yard to take to the Leonora
Market to sell, unlikely activity for a 90-
year-old, but for this daughter of inden-
tured immigrants working is what she
does.
Wah you gon do? she beamed proud-
ly. Yuh cant sit down and get anything;
you have to get up and get.
Munsammys only tilt to old age is that
she has become hearing impaired. She
wears her traditional rumal (madras-style
head scarf) all day. She said that the
women who came from India wore the
deep pink-checkered scarf out of
respect.
Reminiscing on her days growing up in
a logie at a place called Madras Quarter,
she said that ten families each had a room
in the range houses. The logies were built
with mud walls and thatched roofs. They
had small wooden beds with mattresses of
bihaya grass stuffed into jute bags.
Flambeaux (chiragh) were present in
every home and all the cooking was done
on one fireside.
Munsammys parents, her mother
Andikan and father Chenganie, came on
separate ships from India to British
Guiana. She said that they did not speak
much about their trips because they were
both very young. The only thing she can
recall them saying was that the recruiters
had fooled them, telling them that they
were going to British Guiana to work for a
lot of money and gold. They were also
told that they would be able to return to
Aunty Chalmas flat iron
SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 5D
India and that was their desire but they
could not afford it. They both came with-
out their parents at age 11 to work on the
sugar plantations at Leonora, and Jahaji
(friends) took care of them.
Munsammy said her father came first
and did shovel work; he also cut cane
and loaded it into punts. A few years later
her mother came, on another ship. At age
12, one year after arriving in British
Guiana, someone arranged a match wed-
ding between her and Chenganie. Their
union bore three children: Munsammy and
two older brothers who are both deceased.
After their period of indentureship
ended, they bought a house lot from the
manager of the estate in another section of
the village for $1. They built a two-bed-
room wooden house on the lot and relocat-
ed there.
She recalled that her father smoked
tobacco from a pipe while her mother
chewed paan (betel leaf, which is some-
times combined with betel nuts, tobacco
and lime). She recalled that her mother did
not know how to cook roti and that almost
all of their meals consisted of rice. This
would be served mainly with daal and
some form of curry.
Her father died first, in his 70s and a
few years later, Andikan died when she
was in her 80s.
Munsammy and her siblings all started
working at the estate from tender ages.
Her marriage was also arranged when she,
too, was just 12 years old. She said she
never found happiness in the marriage
because her husband consumed a lot of
alcohol and ill-treated her.
Aunty Chalma and her daughter Golin
Turn to page 11D
A sill that is used for
grinding massala
A coal iron that was used by
a butler who worked for a
white plantation manager
Page 6D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017
The Leonora Incident of 1939 revisited
(First published in Stabroek News on February 25, 2010)
By Tota C Mangar
February, 2010 marks the 71st anniversary of the 1939
Leonora strike and riot. At that point in time, Plantation
Leonora on the West Coast Demerara was one of the 27
functioning sugar estates in colonial British Guiana.
During the first half of the 19th century, ownership of
Plantation Leonora was in the hands of Mc Inroy,
Sandbach and Company. Following the dissolution of that
conglomerate in 1854, Plantation Leonora was transferred
to Sandbach, Tinne and Company, the London and
Liverpool-based parent company of Sandbach Parker and
this situation was to persist for sometime. Subsequently in
1891, all of the Sandbachs plantation holdings in Guyana
came under the direct control of the Demerara Company.
In addition to Plantation Leonora, the Deme-rara
Company by 1939, also owned and controlled Plantations
Diamond, Farm, Providence, Ruimveldt and Cornelia Ida.
Of the remaining 21 sugar plantations in the country in the
late 1930s, 15 were under the control of Booker Brothers,
Mr Connell and Company Limited, while three each were
in the hands of Curtis Campbell and S Davson respective-
ly.
The strike and riot of 1939 at Plantation Leonora
emerged against the background of the Great Depression
of the 1930s which was particularly due to the impact of
World War I.
By the 1920s and 1930s, workers wages were depress-
ingly low in the face of an extremely high cost of living,
there was acute poverty, the unemployment rate was high
and diseases and malnutrition were rife. It was not surpris-
ing, therefore that the Caribbean area, including British
Guiana was swept by a wave of unprecedented labour
unrests, including strikes and disturbances in the 1930s.
This period of upheaval against social and economic
oppression had also witnessed the emergence of several
trade unions in the Caribbean and more particularly in
British Guiana. The British Guiana Labour Union, our old-
est trade union, had by this time emerged under the
dynamism and influence of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow
and it had begun to make an impact on the working class.
Moreover, it influenced the formation of other trade unions
in the country at this crucial period of our history.
In the sugar belt, the Man Power Citizens Association
(MPCA) was formed under the leadership of Ayube Edun,
a goldsmith and publisher of the Guiana Review newspa-
Estate managers house
History this week
per, and Mr C R Jacob, a successful merchant and member
of the existing Legislative Council. The MPCA was offi-
cially registered on November 5, 1937, and it concentrated
its energies on organising primarily among workers in the
sugar industry. At the same time, the British Guiana
Workers League also solicited members within the indus-
try with emphasis on factory and clerical workers.
By 1939, labourers at Plantation Leonora were already
known for their militancy. For example, Leonora workers
were among the first Indian labourers to resist the inden-
tured system when they rioted as early as August, 1869
against an arbitrary reduction in wage rates. This resistance
came about at the height of the indentureship system.
Furthermore, in 1909 Leonora workers demonstrated over
a wage rate dispute and as recent as 1938 many of them
had downed tools over the level of pay for loading punts.
It was against this background of workers struggle in
the sugar industry that the strike and subsequent riot at
Plantation Leonora in February, 1939 has to be considered.
The protest in February, 1939 at Leonora has variously
been labelled by interest groups and scholars to connote
the view in which it was held: as a strike, a riot, a distur-
bance or even an uprising. Regardless of whatever descrip-
tion is involved one fact is inescapable, that is the protest
or unrest possessed almost all the elements one would nor-
mally associate with a struggle between the forces of capi-
tal and labour, hence, a conflict between two contending
classes in society.
Leonora sugar workers, like workers in other sectors of
the economy, were prepared to vent their feelings against
the acute social and economic hardships they were experi-
encing. Commenting on the Leonora crisis, the Daily
Argosy in February, 1939, acknowledged the general
complaint is that earnings are inadequate and not commen-
surate with the work done.
The first sign of discontent at Plantation Leonora was
evidenced on Monday, February 13, 1939, when 10 estate
firemen staged a half-day strike, protesting the rather
lengthy working day of 11 hours and requested an extra
hours pay. The firemen were employees retained to stoke
the wood-burning furnaces.
Their grievance was lodged with Mr Prentice, the over-
seer, who promised to refer the matter to Mr Leonard
Lywood, the then estate administrative manager. Lywood
subsequently deferred taking a decision on the matter in
order to consult with the manager of the neighbouring
Pay day circa 1931
Uitvlugt estate. Referring to the issue, the administrative
manager himself admitted that was the first indication we
had that trouble was brewing.
A representative group of concerned firemen met Mr
Lywood and repeated their demands the next morning,
Thursday February 14. They resumed work following a
promise by the manager to review the issue. Nonetheless,
the protest action by the firemen apparently led other
groups on the estate to seek redress for either outstanding
or current issues. For example, the same morning, about 80
to 90 members of Shovel Gang No 2 refused an offer of
eight and nine cents per bed for work on a field at
Groenveldt, some distance from their homes.
A small delegation of these field workers met manager
Lywood and demanded 12 cents per bed instead of the
original offer. Lywood promised to inspect the field the fol-
lowing day, but he withheld the prospect of upping the pay
rate, claiming that he considered nine cents a sufficiently
good price. This merely served to infuriate the shovel gang
who then conveyed their displeasure to the District
Superintendent of Police Mr Webber.
Eventually, a meeting was arranged between Lywood,
the District Commissioner of Labour, Mr Gray, and a
workers delegation. But the intervening discussion did
very little to resolve the issue. Lywood stuck to the original
price offer and Gray openly acknowledged his ineffective-
ness at the negotiations.
The workers, for their part, restated their dissatisfaction
and requested that MPCA boss, Mr Ayube Edun, be
involved in the discussions. This latter request found
favour with the Commissioner of Labour but not with the
administrative manager of the Leonora Estate.
Perhaps, it is worthwhile to point out that the MPCA, as
a union, was still not yet officially recognized by the Sugar
Producers Association (SPA) as the bargaining agent for
sugar workers. Such a situation undoubtedly contributed to
the unrelenting attitude of the estate management. Clearly,
an explosive situation was at hand at Plantation Leonora.
With a stalemate in talks in relation to the pay rate,
workers took the bold decision to travel to Georgetown to
air their grievances before the then visiting West Indian
Royal Commission in an apparent belief that the
Commissioners would be sympathetic to their cause.
According to Dwarka Nath, they were no doubt influ-
enced by some strong remarks made by Sir Walter Citrine
against some employers in the course of evidence given
before the Commission.
Meanwhile, industrial action at Leonora escalated on
Wednesday, February 15, 1939.
Almost the entire field workforce joined in the strike and
took part in picketing exercises on both the sideline and
SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 7D
middle walk dams. While factory workers initially report-
ed for normal duty, the factory was brought to a standstill,
as canes were not readily available for processing. The
Leonora field workers then embarked on a plan to board
the 7.40 am train with their tools of trade and without tick-
ets. They were eventually dissuaded from this aggressive
response by a police detachment under Superintendent
Webber.
The strikers subsequently proceeded on foot along the
railway track to Vreed-en-Hoop, the eastern terminus of
the West Coast Demerara railway and the point of
embarkation of the Vreed-en-Hoop/Georgetown ferry. At
Vreed-en-Hoop, the workers were addressed by C R Jacob
who promised them that the MPCA would seek redress for
their grievances, which included wage rates, hours of work
and method of loading punts. He also advised the strikers
to return to their homes. The protesters, however, were not
satisfied with the unions response. Instead, they wanted an
immediate settlement of their concerns.
C R Jacob for his part departed for Georgetown to attend Man from Hope Estate displaying a locally-made, nineteenth-century sarangi which had been
the afternoons sitting of the West Indian Royal handed down to him (photo, 1976)
Commission and it appears as if his visit to Vreed-en-Hoop
was largely ineffective. By about 1.30 pm, the gathering of
striking workers was joined by another contingent which
was conspicuous by the dominance of women. While some
were obviously wives of sugar workers, it is reasonable to
conclude that a good many of them were sugar workers
themselves, as women then formed 30 per cent of field
labour and were very pronounced in the weeding gangs.
The growing crowd of protesters renewed their efforts to
cross to Georgetown, but were prevented from boarding
the steamer, MV Pomeroon by a party of policemen. While
the protesters chanted loudly, they were by no means vio-
lent. This fact was highlighted by Mr Jacob before the
Royal Commission when he said: They were discontented
but quite peaceful.
By about 4 pm, the situation at the Vreed-en-Hoop ter-
minal had become chaotic. Twice the ferry had to make
premature departures and police reinforcements from the
city and elsewhere did little to quell the protesters, who
intensified their efforts to board the ferry, though police
foiled their action.
Some of the strikers then began to board the West
Demerara train without tickets, after realizing the difficulty
in getting to the capital city. This act of boarding the train
without tickets was certainly an act of civil disobedience
and such a defiant spirit must have convinced the police,
rail and district authorities to accede to the strikers
demand for free transportation home. Additional carriages
were attached and following instructions from the
Turn to page 9D Interior of a sugar factory circa 1889
Page 8D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19 , 2017

History this week

Women in the sugar industry:
The pre-independence period
(An edited version of a column first printed
in the Stabroek News on March 30, 2006)
By Cecilia McAlmont those areas that were regarded as mens
rather than womens work. In fact we are
International Womens Day was celebrat- made aware of womens continued
ed earlier this month under the theme involvement in the industry up to the mid-
Women in Decision Making. The under- dle of the 20th century because of their
lying message of all the symposia, semi- active participation in protest against the
nars and discussions organized to cele- deplorable working conditions.
brate the day was that while Guyanese Walter Rodney (1981) showed that
women have made some strides in this all sometimes disturbances on the estate
important arena, by and large, our pres- began in the female-dominated weeding
ence in the halls of power and decision gang and cited the example of Salema,
making, given the many conventions our who urged the coolies to fight.
government has signed and ratified, Women fieldworkers participated in the
remains unacceptably low. Part of the rea- unrest on the sugar estates in 1924 and
son for this is that womens contribution joined with Creole and Indian men to walk
in almost every aspect of the development to Georgetown from the East Bank
process is often half-heartedly document- Demerara to see Hubert Critchlow.
ed, sometimes by women themselves, The Venn Commission Report of 1948
hence their achievements remain unheard was one of the few occasions when
and compared to men, poorly remunerat- women were openly recognised as an inte-
ed. One of the many areas where the gral part of the estate labour force. It was
silence continues to be quite deafening is called after the 1946 Enmore
in our contribution in the sugar industry Incident to enquire into the condition
which after nearly two centuries to some of the sugar industry in British Guiana.
extent still remains the lifeblood of our According to Ashton Chase (1964), this
country. This article is intended to make a commission paid special attention to the
contribution to filling that lacuna. situation of women in the sugar industry.
The sugar industry in British Guiana It stated that during 1939, 1946 and
really began to take off in the first decades 1949, women made up 30.6%, 30.1% and
of the 19th century after its final acquisi- 27.8% respectively of the total labour
tion by Britain. English planters who had force in the sugar industry. It commented
begun investing in the sugar industry dur- on the harshness of some of the tasks
ing the latter part of the 18th century now women were called upon to perform in Indian Girl circa 1897
poured more financial and human
Turn to page 9D
resources into the newly acquired
colonies.
This increased investment in the indus-
try coincided with Britains decision to
bring an end to the trade in African slaves.
This created a problem for the acquisition
of labour and the planters looked first to
Europe and then Asia, settling on India,
which at the time was also a British
colony. Soon, ships began to sail from
India taking mostly men, but also women
and children to fill the labour gaps in the
sugar plantations left by the dawn of
emancipation.
The gender bias in the writing of history
in the past has severely underestimated the
role and contribution of women to the
sugar industry and gives the impression
that the work of sugar production was
only mens work.
During the period of indenture, women
participated just as actively in the sugar
industry.
Immigrant women were also in short
supply but unlike enslaved women they
did have a few choices. They tended to
work at the less backbreaking tasks in the
field and factory like weeding and manur-
ing of the canes. No doubt in writing the
story of the sugar industry, the over-
whelmingly male writers, influenced by
the perceptions of the role of women and
what was accepted as suitable occupations
for women, deliberately downplayed and
understated the contribution of women in Indian family group circa 1890
 SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 9D

Women in the sugar

industry: The
pre-independence period
From page 8D
order to subsidise their husbands meagre earnings.
It recommended, among other things, that crches be provided on each estate and
tasks in the field be arranged so as to permit women to return home to prepare meals
and look after their children, and also that women and girls should as soon as possible
be prevented by ordinance from working in water. Except for the crches, the recom-
mendations were quite impracticable given, in case of the first, the distance of the
fields from the homes of the women and in the second, the very nature of some of
the tasks they had to perform, made it well nigh impossible for them not to work in
water some of the time.
It is not without irony, however, that women who became best known for their
involvement in the sugar industry, did not actually work there in any capacity but
came to be recognized for their attempts to organise the sugar workers in the trade
union movement which took off after the labour unrest of the 1930s and the recom-
mendations of the Moyne Commission. In this regard,
three women come to mind immediately viz Mrs Janet Jagan, Jane Philips Gay and
Philomena Sahoye-Shury.
Dissatisfaction with the quality of representation given to sugar workers by the
MPCA led to the establishment of the Guiana Industrial Workers Union with JP
Latchmansingh as president and
Jane Philips Gay as general secretary. She served in this position with considerable
energy and enthusiasm until the split of the Peoples Progressive Party into the Jagan
and Burnham factions.
She joined the Burnham (later Peoples National Congress) faction.
A feature that has characterized the evolution of political parties in the Caribbean
is the close linkages many had with trade unions. In the case of the three women ear-
lier mentioned, they used the skills and experience they gained as trade unionists to
advance their status in politics.
Mrs Jagan certainly honed the skills she was to use in her political career from her
involvement in trade union activity. The establishment in 1946 of the Political Affairs
Committee which later became the PPP coincided with the Enmore protest which
resulted in the death of five sugar workers. Dr and Mrs Jagan were very vocal in their
representation of the workers. Mrs Jagan headed the funeral cortege of the martyred
workers and played a lead role in commemorating their death anniversary. She also
later asked that a pension be given to their families.
Despite the scant recognition in the writings on sugar, women have always made
a significant contribution to the survival and development of the industry though not
at the decision-making level. This continued to be the case in the post-indepen-
dence/post-nationalization period. While quantitatively womens participation has
not increased significantly in the millennium, qualitatively it certainly has. Cutting the canes circa 1890

The Leonora Incident of 1939 revisited

From page 7D
Commissioner of Labour and Local
Government, Mr Laing, the train with the
striking workers eventually departed for
Leonora. Certainly, some of the strikers,
if not all, must have viewed this develop-
ment as a sort of moral victory.
However, the unrest at Leonora wors-
ened on the morning of Thursday,
February 16, 1939. Very early on that day,
a party of striking workers entered the
sugar factory and urged factory workers
to support the strike. It would appear that
the strike call was heeded as most of the
factory workers, including the factorys
firemen who had earlier in the week
protested, joined in the wider struggle.
With tensions running high, a detach-
ment of policemen, armed with rifles and
batons and commanded by the District
Superintendent of Police, arrived on the
scene. The police presence seemed to
have heightened the animosity of the
striking workers. Some of them stoned
the police bus and they even resisted
arrest.
Meanwhile, some strikers congregated
near the Administrative Managers house
and again demanded higher pay and
requested the presence of union leaders,
Edun and Jacob. Lywood attempted to
address the gathering, but was greeted by
flying debris. Everything at Leonora was
pointing to an explosive situation.
Incidents of sporadic violence
increased as the day progressed and the
striking workers at Plantation Leonora
once again demanded the presence of
union officials. This demand was not
taken seriously because of the estate
administrations refusal to allow the
MPCA officials to enter the estate com-
pound in the absence of a union recogni-
tion agreement.
The strikers subsequently moved
towards the factory. In the meantime, the
District Superintendent of Police instruct-
ed his men to prevent the entry of strikers
into the factory at all costs. The workers
continued to advance, while throwing
missiles at the police. Constable Bijadder
was pursued by a small party of labourers
and three policemen went to his rescue.
Blows were exchanged between striking
workers and policemen and injuries were
sustained by both groups.
As the strikers became more and more
threatening, orders were made to open
fire on the ringleaders. The colonial
police obeyed and four strikers, including
a woman, were killed, while four others
were seriously injured. The crowd quick-
ly dispersed, as people ran helter-skelter
and the strikers were subdued. By the fol-
lowing day, the strike was over and work
eventually resumed at Plantation
Leonora.
As to the incident, the Daily Argosy of
Friday, February 17, had as its headline,
Bloodshed at Leonora. Police compelled
to fire on mob. Governor Wilfred
Jackson promptly appointed a Commis-
sion of Inquiry to investigate the circum-
stances relating to the Leonora distur-
bances of 1939.
The Commission of Inquiry comprised
Chairman Justice Verity, First Puisne
Judge Mr J A Luckhoo and Mr Arthur
Hill, retired Immigration Agent General.
According to Justice Verity, the
Commission of Inquiry should be con-
ducted thoroughly but with expedition
and we rely on every person concerned to
support us in our determination to do so.
After 12 days of intense hearing,
involving the Police Department, the
Demerara Company Limited, the rela-
tives of the deceased through the British
Guiana East Indian Association, and a
total of 69 witnesses, the Commission
laid blame on the Sugar Producers
Association for its failure to grant recog-
nition to the MPCA. At the same time, it
did not think the existing conditions at
plantation Leonora justified the level of
discontent of the workers.
The Leonora Strike of 1939 in the end
undoubtedly helped to hasten the recog-
nition issue surrounding the MPCA, even
though sugar workers were to be disen-
chanted with this very move in a few
years time. This was evidenced in the
late 1940s when they broke away in
favour of the Guiana Industrial Workers
Union, the forerunner of the Guyana
Agricultural and General Workers Union,
with its more radical and militant leader-
ship.
The protest action was also significant
from the point of view that it witnessed
prominent roles by women and the uni-
fied action of Guyanese field and factory
workers, especially in the latter stages of
the strike.
The 1939 protest at Plantation Leonora
was indeed part of a wider and ongoing
working class struggle in this pre-inde-
pendence period of Guyanas history.
Page 10D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017

Indian indenture: Some reasons for immigrants...

From page 3D
repatriation through commutation of their entitlement to a free passage
would have added to their material acquisitions the compensatory parcel
of land. All of this would have placed them in a position of comparative
wealth and comfort instead of the comparative uncertainty they would
have had to face upon returning to India. Generally, living conditions in
Indian villages from which most of the labourers had been recruited were
not up to the standard of the conditions prevailing on the colonial estates,
even as early as the 1840s. Wage rates, too, were far lower. In India,
around the same time, the average daily wage rate in terms of purchasing
value was the equivalent of four cents; in British Guiana, it ranged
between the equivalent of thirty and forty cents.
Furthermore, in India, the riot had to contend with the vagaries of
nature, often expressed in droughts and floods both of which often led to
famine. There was also the rapacity of man the moneylender or the land-
lord both of whom customarily utilized their cunning to bind their victims
into a lifetime of debt.
Those labourers whose first indenture had expired had acquired five
years experience of their work; they would have become acquainted with
their position in all its aspects; and would have been able to decide, accord-
ing to their own practical knowledge, whether it would be advantageous for
them to return to India or to remain in the colony.
For acclimatized and experienced labourers, there was competition among
the planters for their services.
Many employers were not content with offering the usual fifty-dollar boun- The first Hindu temple in Georgetown
ty money to those who re-indentured, but also offered a bonus incentive of in James Street, Albouystown
five and sometimes ten dollars. For the thrifty, this bounty money and the
bonus, the equivalent of about a years income, became the nucleus of a for-
tune.
It was thus that a number of labourers were able to invest in cattle and
become milk vendors, and to enter the retail and later wholesale trade. To a
number of labourers, re-indenturing would be viewed as being better than the
status of a free labourer as it was the only way to ensure free medical atten-
tion, free hospital accommodation, and free living quarters. The temptation
for them to re-indenture over and over again must have been irresistible.
Another possible motivation for settling concerned the implications
accompanying the loss of caste. Before leaving India, the immigrants had
been rigidly fixed in a stratified social system based on caste. But once they
had crossed the kala pani (ie the black water) they lost all claim to their erst-
while caste, re-admission to which was achievable either by travelling to
the sacred Indian city of Benares to wash seven times in the holy water of
the Ganges or by giving lavish caste dinners and elaborate gifts to often
unscrupulous priests. Initially, the popular belief among the immigrants
was that failure to thus cleanse themselves was to invite divine retribution.
However, towards the end of the nineteenth century and afterwards, the
injunction on travelling by sea was widely discredited, and it was not
applicable to all strata of Hindu society.
The immigrants ability to preserve their values and to practise their
customs must be accorded considerable significance as a factor encourag-
ing settlement in the colony.
Despite the pervasive and socially and culturally destructive influ-
ences of the plantations, the immigrants managed to keep intact the central tenets
of their cultural values which in later years were given elaborate expression. The first Muslim mosque in
This they achieved mainly through their strong desire to use their own lan- Georgetown, Church Street
guages and through their tenacity to resist imbibing trappings of Western civilisa-
tion.
The frequent visits by missionaries and other emissaries from India also tended
to keep intact the umbilical cord that bound the immigrants to India. The
practice of their culture, the availability of most of their native food-
stuffs, the presence of a growing number of their compatriots, and the
sight of masjids and mandirs on every estate must have made them feel,
in a vicarious sort of way, that they were still in their native country.
For a number of immigrants there was the fear of the long voyage to
India occupying 100 days or more and marked by their witnessing dozens
of deaths. Chief among the causes for excessive mortality on board ship
were the debilitated condition of some of the returnees; the deficiency of
animal protein and fresh vegetables; and the damp condition between
decks, which rendered the atmosphere unwholesome and conducive to dis-
ease. Finally, there was widespread knowledge among the immigrants that
suffering inevitably came to a sizeable portion of those who repatriated,
especially those who did not have or could not find relatives in their native
villages. Often adding to this problem was the fear of ridicule and shame in
India that usually accompanied an inability to demonstrate material
progress.
Despite these restraining factors it must be observed that throughout the
period of indenture, pressures had been brought to bear upon the British
government, the government of India, and the colonial government of
British Guiana, most especially by the findings of various Commissions of
Enquiry and by vociferous local and overseas critics, to enact protective leg-
islation to safeguard the interest and welfare of the immigrants. Legislative
enactments did not, of course, completely eradicate all evils in the system, but
they did go a long way to alleviate some of the sufferings of the labourers, to
make life in the colony more tolerable, and consequentially encouraging a
very large number of immigrants to make British Guiana their home. The second Shivala ever built in this country dating
from 1902 at Woodley Park, West Coast Berbice

My father came here at age 10
By Shabna Rahman
Jagat Jhagroo travelled to Guyana from
India in 1895 with his pregnant mother,
father and three siblings aboard a ship to
work on the sugar plantation. He was ten
years old.
His son, Bissoondial (only name),
called Mahant, 86, of Groenveldt,
Leonora, West Coast Demerara said that
his father and grandparents, like all of the
other labourers who came, were promised
jobs that paid a lot of money and comfort-
able lives.
But along the three-month journey to
British Guiana, they began to realise the
hardships they would face. Their struggle
began when Jhagroos eight-year-old
brother fell ill and subsequently died. His
body was tossed overboard, much to the
despair of his parents, but it was the only
means of disposing of it. His mother gave
birth to another boy onboard and as they
continued the journey, they prayed that
their lives would improve.
But they were further disappointed
when they were taken to a 10-room logie,
to share with nine other families, at a place
called Raj Puriva and had to start working
on the sugar plantation under harsh condi-
tions. Their work on the plantation includ-
ed weeding, applying manure, watering
the cane, cutting and loading it into punts.
Jhagroo and his siblings were taken to the
field to work at tender ages.
When he was older, as was customary,
his marriage was arranged and he and his
wife had six children, five daughters and
then Bissoondial. The Leonora resident
said that his fourth sister, who lives in the
US, is the only surviving one.
Bissoondial did not know his grandfa-
ther, but he said his grandmother died in
her 70s. He remembered that she had
stopped working and would go to the
Daughter of indentured immigrants...
From page 5D
Her daughter Golin (only name given)
said her mother, went through a hard
time...
Munsammys father had bought her a
small house made of shingles which she later
dismantled and replaced with a wooden
house. She eventually gave it to Golin who
upgraded it to a concrete structure.
Her father also gave her a calf as a wed-
ding present and she would cut grass while
working in the backdam and take it home in
the afternoon for feed. In time, her small herd
grew and she would milk the cows and sell
the milk around the village.
Golin spoke fondly about her grandparents
and recalled that they were very loving and
kindhearted. Whenever she and her siblings
visited them they would always give them
food and money. She said too that when her
grandparents went to their house they would
take a bag of fruits and vegetables from their
garden.
Today Munsammy lives alone in a simple
logie-type dwelling and does her own cook-
ing and cleaning. Although Golin has urged
her to live with her, or to at least sleep at her
house at nights, she refuses. Golin says once
her mother is comfortable and happy in her
own space, she would not take that away
from her.
Munsammys humble abode has a mud
floor and a curtain which separates her bed-
SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017 Page 11D
Bissoondial
estates hospital every morning to collect
free bread and rations to cook.
He was only 13 years old when his
father died at the age of 59. His mother,
who had later moved to live with one of
her daughters on the East Coast Demerara
died in her 90s. The last job his father did
before his death was to bleed rubber into a
pail to which water and acid were added.
He would squeeze the extract out before
steaming and drying it.
Though he remembers the process,
Bissoondial was not sure what the product
was called or what it was used for, but he
said it was exported during the time of
the war.
Bissoondials mother used to weed
grass in the canefield and in her later years
she worked in the estate managers yard as
a cleaner.
At age 16 after completing school, he
too got a job at the estate factory but it was
only temporary and he got retrenched
when the estate grind off. He started
working at a shop belonging to his sister
and brother-in-law and would also seek
other jobs in Georgetown and other places
as a carpenter.
He recalled that during the big strike in
1963, workers started to squat on a
coconut walk. With the place becoming
populated, he decided to build a small
shop in front of his house, but bandits
broke into it on three occasions and stole
everything. Eventually he built the shop
below his house and made it more secure.
After that he never suffered any more rob-
beries.
Bissoondial and his wife are still oper-
ating a shop today. The couple had seven Bissoondial and his wife
children, the eldest of whom has died.
room from the rest of her living space. In a
corner on a table, sits two kerosene stoves
and flambeaux. Her house has electricity, but
she uses a flambeau at night.
Look weh me live, she said. Me deh
good. Me nah want move from hay.
She showed this newspaper relics from the
past a small flat iron that she used to heat
to iron clothes, a coal iron that was used by a
butler who worked for a white plantation
manager, as well as a sill that is used to grind
masala.
Munsammy has three other daughters, one
son, seven grandchildren, five great grand-
children and two great, great grandchildren.
She is grateful that she has lived to see her
fourth generation.
Golin said her mother, the oldest member
of the mandir, would go there every Sunday
with her flowers and basket of fruits for wor-
shipping.
Her children hosted a religious function in
celebration of her 90th birthday last month.
They also made her a birthday cake.
She was in the limelight last year when
Pushpanjali 16 a cultural event that the
Indian Commemoration Trust organises
annually honoured her for being the oldest
surviving worker of the Leonora Estate.
Pushpanjali is held for the anniversary of
the arrival of the first set of Indian indentured
labourers on May 5, 1838. It also launched
an open-air museum and Munsammy was
happy to cut the ribbon to declare it open. Aunty Chalma and her four generations
Page 12D SUNDAY STABROEK, March 19, 2017

Two tadjahs
The tadjah festival was the largest festival on the nineteenth century estates. In the
latter part of the century the tadjahs were made by the Chinese, and the crowds
which took part were Indian Muslims, Indian Hindus and African Christians. It is
not known exactly why the festival became so popular, because it is a Muslim Shia
festival, not a Sunni one and most Muslims in the then British Guiana were Sunnis. A replica of the Whitby in the Indian Monument Gardens, Camp Street
The tadjahs were intended to represent a tomb and were taken in procession along
the road. There were lights, drumming and stick fights, and at the end of the obser-
vances the tadjahs were thrown into the sea at high tide.
In the twentieth century, the tadjah festival was opposed by the Christian priests and
the Muslim moulvis and eventually it was banned on the grounds of the disorderly
behaviour which was associated with it. When tadjahs from different estates met on
the road there were fights.

Muslim Mosque Hindu Temple